Biological markers and severe head trauma. Where are we?

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) constitutes a major health and socioeconomic problem throughout the world. Despite the significant advances in neuroradiology and cerebral monitoring it is still difficult to measure the degree of primary brain injury and continuing secondary damage with Glasgow Coma Scale score or the initial computed tomography. Predicting prognosis of TBI patients in early stages has a vital importance and is difficult in some instances. The present review shows that there has been an increasing interest in biochemical markers for traumatic brain injury during the last years. The potential correlation of markers with injury and outcome measures in severe head injury is promising.

Keywords

• biological markers
• craniocerebral trauma
• prognosis